In September 2012, Shauna Turner, then in grade 9, started to develop the idea of a garden at the school. Later, two fellow students joined in, Sophia Draper and Hannah Brown and helped to apply for a grant through the World Wildlife Fund Canada, to build the garden, and in December 2012, they received it.
In their second year at Inquiry Hub, they worked on an Aquaponics project, and continued maintenance of the garden, although a little less intensively than the first year. That year, Nicole Ward, a new grade 9, also became a part of the Green Inquiry group.
Sunflowers in Inquiry Hub’s school garden
In year three of Inquiry Hub, the Green Team received another grant for the beautification of the iHub Garden. This involved putting in benches and picnic tables and creating a mural to decorate the garden space. They also began to write a Garden Manual, in which they put what they’d learned so it can be used by future Inquiry Hub students, as well as people from other schools who are interested in creating a community garden.
In April 2015 Inquiry Hub won the Ken Spencer award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, receiving $7,000. One purchase made by the students with this money was a kitchen unit, to prepare food grown in the garden for consumption by students.
Read more about the kitchen unit »
That year, Alan Turner, Shauna’s brother joined the team.
Inquiry Hub’s Green Team – From the left, Alan, Hannah, Sophia, Shauna, Nicole
The 2015/16 year was Shauna, Sophia, and Hannah’s last at Inquiry Hub. They continued the garden manual project, maintaining the garden and making it better. Alan attempted to create a vertical aquaponics system, which, while not completely working, was an improvement over an earlier attempt from the second year.
The Vertical Garden
This year is Nicole’s final one at Inquiry Hub. The team is continuing to maintain the garden, as well as creating a vertical garden, with the possibility of the foods students using the produce for their course.
